


Smart

by ultraradiance (greisful)



Series: Saorise Duology [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Drama, F/M, Humor, One direction AU, Romance, Sarcasm, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-07-10 20:29:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7005184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greisful/pseuds/ultraradiance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><div class="center">
  <p>"Smart, I'd have to lose sixty IQ points in order to be considered smart,"<br/>Said the girl who made a bet with Harry Styles that she could get him to fall for her before he got her to fall for him.</p>
  <p>Read with an English/British accent for full effect.</p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

>   
>  banner by vic.toire @ tda

**Prologue**

"Saorise, did you really leave your dorm looking like that?," an annoying voice called out behind me. I completely ignored the voice and kept walking. As far as I was concerned, Harry Styles was completely inferior to me in every way, he may have been taller than me in height but I was above him in every other way. I turned a corner and kept walking.

If Harry wanted to talk to me, he was going to have to stop me first because I had no intention of waiting for him to catch up just so that I could listen to the insults that left his mouth and came at me. Before I knew it, Harry had caught up with me and was walking next to me with his hands shoved into the pockets of his school uniform and a lazy, arrogant smile on his face. I glanced at him before turning my attention to the nearing classroom.

Six years and Harry still had the cocky, arrogant look on his face. The first time that I had laid eyes on him when I was twelve, he'd been arrogant with a slight smirk on his face and a two-inch height advantage.

"What, no come back this time Saorise?" Harry asked me mockingly but I still gave him no answer and kept walking. I was hoping to make it into class before the insults really started flying. I didn't need another teacher on my case about being late to class and harassing students.

"Firing back an insult would just result in me being late for class and it would be stupid to start an argument right now," I finally said. It wasn't a comeback but it would satisfy my need to say something.

"And you're not stupid are you Saorise? You're actually quite smart," Harry to me to which I snorted in answer.

"Smart, I'd have to lose sixty IQ points in order to qualify as smart," I replied and stopped walking as Harry stood in my way and looked down at me with a look on his face that told me he was planning something I really wouldn't want to know about.

"Really now?" I raised an eyebrow at him and stood waiting for him to move out of my way. "So if you're a genius, does that mean that you have full control of your emtions?"

"Yes."

"You can hide what you're feeling?"

"Yes."

"You can make yourself stop feeling an emotion that you don't like?"

"Yes."

"So, you're telling me that not only are you the smartest person in this place but you also have complete control of your emotions and what you're feeling and you can decide whether or not you want to feel something."

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"So if you can control your emotions, can you manipulate other's peoples emotions, make them feel something that they don't want to feel," there was a glint in Harry's eye now and I narrowed my eyes in suspicion.

"Yes, what's your point?"

"Could you make someone fall in love?"

"Of course I could," I said. There was no doubt in my mind that I could make someone fall in love with me, it would be easy. I wouldn't even need to try.

"Could you make me fall in love with you?"

"Of course I could, you're not that complicated, I could make you fall for me easily. You on the other hand trying to make me fall in love with you, now that's impossible. I think I'm a bit too complicated for you to understand," I replied smirking.

"You wanna bet?" Harry asked taking a step closer to me. I refused to move back and so I stood there with his chest pressed up against mine and I looked up at his face.

"Of course not, that would be stupid."

"Then you admit defeat," Harry said watching my face for an expression. I stood there thinking about it. On the one hand, I didn't want to admit defeat because I hated losing more than anything. On the other hand, agreeing to the bet would be stupid and the whole thing would end ugly. But I never admit defeat.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was already talking and saying something that I would regret forever.

"Fine, I'll do the bet," I said surprising myself and Harry. He took a step back and held out his hand for me to shake.

"I bet that I can make you fall in love with me before you make me fall in love with you Saorise," Harry said holding out his hand. I put my left hand in his right and gripped it. "And whoever loses has to announce to the entire school who they have a crush on."

"Deal," I said shaking Harry's hand. We stood there having a staring contest before I finally broke eye contact and made my way to class.

"Harry Styles, be prepared to fall in love with me," I said walking away before turning around and adding, "and then prepare to have your heart crushed as I reject you."

I was confident on the outside but on the inside I was panicking. I had just made a bet to make my enemy fall in love with me before he made me fall in love with him. The loser had to announce to the entire school who their crush was.

I was going to win.

I was not going to lose.

I never lose and this is no exception.

Failure is not an option.

What have I just gotten myself into?


	2. Not My Best Moment

I admit, agreeing to manipulate someone's feelings and then crushing them completely and utterly when I rejected them was a new low for me. In fact, it was pretty much my all time low. Sure, I'd done a lot of horrible things over the years that I'd been at this school, some of them I wasn't exactly proud of, but I'd never done this before.

In hindsight, agreeing to that bet was both an all time low for me, and at the same time it was the dumbest thing that I'd ever done.

Ever.

I don't know why I'd done what I'd done it. I just couldn't stand stupid Harry Styles. He managed to get under my skin in a way that no other person could. When everyone else insulted me, I just brushed it off and walked away. Whenever Harry insulted me, mocked me, taunted me -really, there was a list of things that he did to humiliate me- I had this urge to defend myself.

And at the same time punch his face in and kick him so hard he went sterile, but that's minor details.

Agreeing to that stupid bet was idiotically impulsive of me. I shouldn't have done it, I shouldn't have let the need to prove that I wasn't weak and a coward get control over the logical, indifferent side of me. I shouldn't have let the need to prove that I was better than Harry in every aspect get so strong.

Unfortunately for me, that's exactly what I'd done and now look at where I was. I don't know why I have to prove that I'm better than him, I mean, it's pretty obvious that I am.

I also wasn't aware that agreeing to make Harry fall in love with me came with him standing outside my dorm door, waiting for me.

"Jesus!" I cried when I caught sight of Harry leaning against my doorway as I left my room.

"I'm Harry, not Jesus, although, I have been called God's gift to women several times," Harry said giving me a cheeky smile. I glared at him, giving me a heart attack wasn't exactly doing him any favours. My heart was pounding in my chest, I was still waiting for it to slow down.

"Was giving me a heart attack part of your seduction technique or was that part just a bonus?" I snapped walking down the hallway with my bag slung over my shoulder.

"That wasn't what I was aiming for no, as much as I may wish that you had a heart attack and disappeared off of this planet, no, I didn't want to give you a heart attack. I just thought it would be nice to walk you to breakfast," Harry said walking next to me with his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants.

"And why is that?"

"So that I can get to know you better -"

"Oh that's nice but you can kindly fuck off in the mornings because -"

"- because then it'll be more fun to watch your expression when I utterly destroy you at the end of this bet," Harry went on as if I hadn't interrupted.

"You look very pretty today," Harry added. Yes, because that's just going to overshadow the fact that you completely want to destroy me.

"Flattery isn't going to get you anywhere, you're going to have to try harder than that," I said as we turned a corner and went down a flight of stairs.

"Aw damn, I'll consult the guide on things like this," Harry said giving a regretful sigh that was completely fake.

"Yes, I'm sure _the Idiots Guide to Bullshitting_ is a fascinating read."

"It's absolutely riveting, you should read it."

"You'll have to lend me your copy some time."

"Sadly I lost my old one, I've got to buy a new copy," Harry said. I rolled my eyes at him and kept walking. We entered into the Dining Hall as it was called and I headed for an empty table.

"Remind me to have a violin to play when I crush your heart like a bug and you burst into tears," I said loading my plate with the eggs, bacon and toasted bread that was spread around the table.

"So, let me know something about you," Harry said shoving bacon into his mouth and drinking orange juice. I gave him a disgusted look and moved my chair father away from where he was sitting.

"I'm better than you in every way and in everything. I think you're the scum of the earth. And just so that you know something about me that I haven't made obvious already, I want to be a psychologist."

"So, basically, I still know next to nothing about you," Harry said spraying me with food. I sat back in my chair as a piece of bacon landed under my eye.

"It's my turn now, why do you eat like an animal?" I asked Harry wiping away the bacon that had come out of his mouth.

"It keeps all the ladies away from me, I don't like being mobbed," Harry said giving a charming smile. I didn't understand how he could pull that off so well, for god's sake, the boy had egg stuck in between his teeth and his hair . . . don't even get me started on his hair. I'll end up comparing it so something inappropriate.

I may or may not have hung out with some extremely perverted boys when I was young. In my defence, I hadn't known that they were that sick. I'll tell you one thing, I sure learned where babies came from a lot faster than most kids.

"Trust me honey, you don't need to eat like an animal to keep the ladies away, your face does that all by itself," I said. That wasn't strictly true, in fact, that part was a complete and outright lie. Harry was actually a very attractive person, the amount of glances that the girls cast him were proof of that but I was never going to admit it.

The only way that Harry Styles would find out that I found him attractive was if I was dead. If anyone told him that I thought he was handsome I would deny it.

Never give in to the enemy.

"I think that's just you love, then again, you never really had good taste in men so it's understandable that you find me repulsive. Plus you're not much of a looker yourself, you chase away the men. Remember when Daniel dumped you two days after you started dating."

"That was because you threw a potted plant at his head and gave him a concussion and you know it!" I said pointing my knife at Harry.

"Was not!"

"Was too, he ran in the other direction whenever you were within a five-feet of him after that! He ended up switching schools!"

"Put down the knife first of all," Harry said staring at the sharp object in my hand until I put it down. "Good, now second of all, I didn't know that you saw that."

"How could I have missed it, you threw a potted plant at me too, it's just that I dodged it!"

"Now that I think about it, I really haven't been all that nice to you over the years have I?" Harry said thoughtfully.

"I'll say," I muttered as I wiped my face clean. I drank the last of my orange juice and got up to leave. "Well, I'm leaving, see you hopefully at the end of the day and never in between."

"What do you have?" Harry asked me.

"I've got History and you," I said snatching his timetable out of his hand, "are late for Biology."

"Shit, really!" Harry asked taking his timetable table out of my hands.

"Yes, in fact, you're ten minutes late. Pray and hope that Professor Gardner doesn't skin you alive and give you detention," I said making my way out of the hall and back up the stairs that I'd come down.

"I'll see you later," Harry yelled as he ran away from me and turned a corner.

"IF YOU VALUED YOUR LIFE YOU'D STAY AWAY FROM ME!" I yelled after him but I'm pretty sure he didn't hear.

I sat myself down in the middle of the classroom. I wasn't so close to the front where Professor Baldwin could keep an eye on me but not so far in the back where he'd pick me to answer questions.

Professor Baldwin was the most boring History teacher to ever exist. He managed to make bloody wars sound about as interesting as watching paint dry. It was a miracle I hadn't drifted off to sleep in his class and failed it.

I prepared myself for taking notes and what was sure to be a boring class. At least I could count on one thing to stay the same. I glanced to my left and noticed Nicole sitting there, she whipped out her binder and textbook before turning to me.

"What's this I hear about you and Harry Styles?" she asked me eagerly.

"Nicole, why don't you take that nose of yours that's in my business and instead shove it up your ass," I replied in an annoyed tone. Nicole wasn't really a mean person. She just loved gossip and she hunted down any information she could get.

I could deal with her on most days, hell I'd even given her some information to work with. Today however, I really wasn't in a mood to deal with her.

"I see you're having one of your bitch days then," Nicole said lightly, not at all insulted that I'd told her where to shove it.

"Nicole?"

"Yes, Saorise?"

"Shut up," I said just as Professor Baldwin walked in. The class dragged by so slowly I could've sworn that the clock was broken. By the end of the class I was about to fall asleep when the bell rang and I shot out of my seat startled.

"I see you were paying your usual close attention to the board," Nicole said grinning at me and looking down at my blank, lined piece of paper. I hadn't taken notes at all and I had no idea what the hell had gone on in class at all.

"Nicole, kindly fuck off, today is not a good day," I said as I headed for Chemistry. Hopefully Chemistry would cheer me up and make the day better than it already was. It managed to take my mind off of everything until the class was over and then I was back to how I'd been before.

Nicole headed off for Advanced Calculus laughing while I shoved people out of my way to Chemistry. I thought Chemistry would take my mind off of things but apparently not. I had to be excused from class and sent to the counsellor because I had almost blown up the entire lab.

I was about to a substance from my graduated cylinder into my beaker when the teacher ran up to me and snatched the cylinder out of my hand with a horrified look on her face.

I shot her a confused look before looking down at my labeled beaker and what was in it and then back to the cylinder. My eyes widened as I realised that I'd almost blown the entire lab and classroom to pieces.

"Oh my God I'm so sorry! I didn't know I was about to do that!"

"Saorise, maybe you should go see the counsellor," my Professor had said to me. Well, this was just great, my chemistry teacher thought that I was a pyschopathic killer.

I'd left without arguing and made my way back to my room where I lounged around and read. Hey, I was excused from class for probably the rest of the day, I might as well spend it here.

When I decided to make my way to the kitchen and get some food, I came upon Harry Styles and a couple of his friends. It turns out they were talking about me, I stopped to listen and pressed my ear to the edge of the wall in hopes of hearing better.

"Mate, I can't believe you just made that bet," one his friends said. I didn't know who it was, I didn't recognise the voice.

"Me neither but I'll probably win. I hate Saorise's stupid guts and I despise her more than anything else on this planet but she's one hell of an attractive chick. It'll be the most amusing thing to watch when I destroy her little feminine heart once she says that she loves me." I felt anger course through me when I heard myself being talked about as if I was property and not a girl. Being talked about as if there was nothing intelligent about me.

"I'm going to enjoy the benefits of being her boyfriend once I start dating her if you know what I mean. After all, I'm going to ask her out at one point aren't I? Make her think that she's won and then pull the rug out from under her and crush her," my mouth dropped open in shock at what Harry had just said. LIKE HELL HE WAS GOING TO BE MY BOYFRIEND! OVER MY DEAD BODY! There was no way that Harry was beating me at this bet. I'd do anything to win.

Unable to take being talked about like this any longer. I strode forward from where I was standing and made my way to Harry. He turned around and stared at my angry expression with surprise.

I walked up to Harry, pulled my arm back and punched him square in the face. Harry's head was thrown back and his nose had started to bleed. He held onto his nose and rubbed his eye before turning his gaze back to me.

"Is that how you make people fall in love with you love?" Harry asked through his nose bleed.

"No, that's how I give someone a black eye," I snarled before turning around and walking away.


	3. In Which I Avoid Harry

It is a universally known fact that Harry Styles is a complete and utter moron. He was so surprised that I punched him and for the past week, he's been badgering me about why I punched him and what he did to cause me to punch him. The only thing I could manage to do without swearing like a sailor was give him a look that suggested he was an idiot.

You'd think the fact that I'd given him a good kick to the shins after he'd given a frustrated sigh of "women!" would've been a big enough hint but apparently not. Yes, he is in fact, that clueless. I pray for his future, I really do.

I had the pleasure of shutting my dorm door in his face when I opened it and found him standing outside it one day. He'd made quite a loud noise when his nose met the door. The next day he'd stormed around the school with a look like thunder and I couldn't help but smile in satisfaction. I'd been the one to piss off Harry Styles and no one else. I hadn't even been sorry when my Chemistry teacher had come running to my side of the lab with baking soda after I accidentally spilled acid all over the table and burned a hole through it.

I'm not this bad at Chemistry, I swear to God I'm not.

It seemed as if as soon as I had started that bet with Harry everything in my Chemistry class was just going wrong. Good thing this didn't happen in my biology class. I would've been really screwed then.

I was so happy to find that I was confusing Harry Styles by ignoring him (when he should've known why). He didn't know everything about me even if he did act like it. He didn't know about the biology trip that I was taking next term over in Canada. I couldn't wait for the trip, a whole week away from stupid Harry Styles and his annoying face and blargh!

"Saorise, no, you're -Saorise, you're supposed to know how to do this!" My chemistry teacher shrieked at me as I poured too much acid into my base. Meanwhile she went around me throwing the baking soda around the table to make it stop sizzling. I hated environmental chemistry but I had to do it, I had no choice.

"I'm sorry, I really am!" I said snapping out of my thoughts and looking at the liquid in my beaker that was dangerously close to overflowing. I guess I wasn't getting a very good mark on this lab then.

"You should've known how to do this by now, we've been over and over it for years now! You need to neutralize the base, it's supposed to have a pH of seven, you've turned it into an acid now -and a very dangerous one at that," Shiloh said. Shiloh was my Professor's last name and she was perfectly fine with people making fun of it a little bit. She thought some of the jokes everyone made were quite witty (even if some of them didn't make any sense to me).

"No, don't get it on the floor!" Shiloh shrieked at me as I accidentally spilled some of my substance on the floor. The floor started sizzling and a small hole started forming. Shiloh frantically poured the baking soda and within a few seconds the hole stopped getting bigger.

"Hello, Professor Gardiner," Shiloh said looking through the hole down at a very startled Professor Gardiner.

"It can't possibly be that dangerous," I scoffed crossing my arms despite the fact that my acid had just burned a hole through the floor. Shiloh raised an eyebrow at me, grabbed the scupula lying on the table and put it into my beaker. She took it out five seconds later and where there had been metal it was not just a smoking piece of corroded material.

"You're lucky you're using a beaker made for acids otherwise we would have a crisis on our hands," Shiloh said before gently pushing me away from my table where I was working. "You . . . go sit over there and look pretty."

Shiloh waved me off and I stuck my tongue out childishly at her turned back as she busied herself cleaning up my mess and headed over to an empty chair by the doorway. I sat in it slouched for the rest of the class while everyone else completed what they were supposed to be doing, cleaned their stuff and put everything away before getting started on their lab reports. I couldn't do a lab report like everyone else, I had to do a lab report which explained why I failed. Professor Shiloh was doing this on purpose, I just knew it.

"Psst," a voice hissed at me quietly as I sat in my chair near the doorway near the end of class. I looked up with my eyebrows furrowed and looked around for who had interrupted me and broken my attention.

"Psst, over here," a voice said and I looked around to see Harry leaning against the wall so he couldn't be seen and trying to get my attention. I glared at him, pursed my lips and then turned my gaze back to my notebook and continued writing my lab report. I was holding my pen so tightly I thought it would snap in half.

"Saorise, it's me, Harry," he said giving me his stupid grin when I glanced at him. The grip on my pen got even harder and I could already see it straining.

"Saorise, I know you can see me, I need to talk to you," Harry said a little bit louder this time. I completely ignored him though and kept writing even if it wasn't much more than a word per minute. Please go away, please go away, please go away I thought silently. I begged whatever God existed to make Harry go away. I didn't want to get in trouble for talking to him, I was busy and third of all, I really didn't want to talk to him if he didn't apologise for being a chauvinistic pig.

I was about to break and snap at Harry to go away when Professor Shiloh walked by and without even looking up from her clipboard said to Harry "Mr Styles, unless you are in Chemistry, please leave my classroom alone and return to wherever you need to be."

Harry sighed in defeat but left nonetheless. I shot Shiloh a smile and I could've sworn that she'd smiled back before returning to her work. When I left class at the end of the day, I made sure to avoid Harry on my way up to my dorm. Unfortunately for me, Harry cornered me in an empty hallway. I cursed myself and the fact that I'd let myself get caught so very easily.

"Saorise, woah, hold on, I need to know why you keep ignoring me," Harry said putting his hands on my shoulders to stop me from walking around him.

"If you don't know, then I can't help you," I said harshly before attempting to get away from him again. No such luck.

"Saorise -"

"It's because you talked about me like I was a piece of furniture to your friends, okay?!" I finally screeched at him loudly. His hands left my shoulders and he just stood there looking at me in shock. I had never lost my temper around him before so this was a first.

"Saorise, I didn't -"

"Do you know how small and worthless I felt, I admit it okay, I felt stupid, are you happy now!" I shrieked at him.

"But, why?"

"Because you spoke about me like I was furniture, not like I was a human being. Do you talk about me like that specifically or do you talk about girls like that in general because you think men are better?"

"Well, men are better -"

"You did  _not_ just say that," I said cutting across Harry yet again. I stood there with my eyes wide and barely able to keep my jaw from dropping open. My hands were clenched at my sides and it was taking everything in my willpower to not punch Harry in the face.

"Men are not better than woman!"

"Yeah, they are!"

"So you don't think I could do damage to you then," I said taking a step closer to Harry so that we were nose to nose. He smirked, completely forgetting what he'd really stopped me for.

"Not physically," Harry said. I glared at him, stepped back and took his hands off of my shoulders.

"You better watch out, Harry Styles," I said as threateningly as I could before walking away from his stupid smirking face. Over confident bastard. He was lucky that tomorrow was the day we got to spend with our parents. He'd have to wait for that rock-climbing class for me to get back at him. Oh yeah, I was going to get back at him, alright. I just hope I didn't kill him with what I was planning to do.

I barged into my room and saw Nicole sitting in front of a mirror, her tongue sticking out trying to braid her hair. She caught sight of me and grinned despite the fact that she couldn't braid her hair and had most likely been sitting in front of that mirror for half an hour trying to learn how.

"Well. look who's back from her day of school," Nicole sang leaving the mirror and hopping onto my bed next to me as I took off my shoe.

"Chemistry was a disaster and Sir Prat Head has been trying to get me to talk to him," I said laying down on the bed once I'd successfully removed my shoes.

"Ah, what can Nicole do to make things better?" she asked me as she patted me on the forehead and went to look through her suitcase for something.

"If you know anyone who can kill Harry then sure, you can help," I said as she calmly put moisturizer on her face. I made a face at her and cream ways.

"What, I have dry skin," Nicole said as a response the face that I'd made. "And besides, no one in my family is a sniper. You could check with your family though."

I couldn't help but laugh at that. Everyone in my family had a different job and tons of connections but we barely spoke to one another and we didn't know how to make conversation. We didn't function very well and we didn't make an effort to change that.

"Ah, well, all boys are idiots so what are you going to do?! Are you excited for tomorrow?" Nicole asked me as I began to change into my pajamas.

"Oh yeah, I'm definitely looked forward to my mother sniffing her nose at what I wear or my shoes or how straight I stand a father who barely looks up from his phone to notice my existence. It'll just be swell, really, it will, I can't wait for tomorrow," I replied sarcasm dripping from my voice.

"You could try being cheerful you know."

"Why be cheerful when you can swear at the world and squirt it in the eye with the lemons that it gave you," I said in response before heading into the washroom and shutting the door.

Chapter End Notes:


	4. Meet the Family Day

 

 

When I woke up the next morning I was feeling pretty good about myself and how the day was going to go until I remembered that it was Meet the Family Day. Ugh. The day was exactly what it implied. Out of the ten months that we were stuck in this fortress of a school in the middle of nowhere, one day we got to spend with our families. Oh sure, we had the option of going home during holidays but everyone at this school was usually here because their parents wanted them out of their hair.

Not that the parents didn't love their kid it's just that most of them were too busy with work to actually be able to look after their child and watch them and make sure they were safe, so they sent them here so that the school could do it for them. The majority of us didn't really mind though because we could imagine how it must be to be so busy and we weren't all spoiled assholes.

My family was not one of these cases.

Oh I'm sure that my mother loved me . . . deep, deep down but she had no way of showing it. She'd pretty much given up on me when I was six-years-old and had barely anything to do with me. According to her I was a lost cause and would mostly likely end up on the streets. Her only hopes for me were that I married rich so that I didn't have to do anything and could hire people to do it for me.

You can imagine how much of an ego boost this was for me as a six-year-old. I was about nine when I realized that no, my mother did not in fact give two shits about me and I wouldn't get any help from her when it came to school. I was the one who'd asked to be sent to Hedwig's Academy for Exceptional Young Men and Women. I may have sucked at being smart as a six-year-old but even at that age it pissed me off that my mom thought I was an idiot. So just to spite her I decided that I would be one hell of a smart child, smarter than both my brother's had been. It was that stubbornness that allowed to me be accepted at Hedwig's.

My dad on the other hand was different. I knew that he loved me and all but he was always just so busy and away on a business trip. More often than not you'd find him either on his cell phone or with a Bluetooth in his ear. It was impossible to have a talk with him that lasted longer than a minute. Any normal father would've talked to their child about wanting to go to boarding school but dad had just nodded his head and waved me out of his study.

My brother's were arrogant assholes with sticks up their asses that were unfortunately quite successful. I couldn't really complain about them being stupid because they were at the top of their respective fields but I could sure as hell complain about their personalities and the fact that they had about as much respect for a woman as they did for dirt. Every time that they visited me they would smirk down at me and ask me how I was doing in school and if there were any guys they should talk to about who had gotten some with me.

Don't let that fool you, they weren't worried, no they wanted to go high five whoever they were and talk to them about ways to get women into bed. Unfortunately for them, I wasn't an idiot who was going to gamble my life on the chance that I _might_ not get pregnant so I was still a virgin.

Every time that they visited I wanted nothing more than to find a baseball bat and beat their faces in with it.

I was not fond of my family and my family was not fond of me. I would've happily disowned them or traded them for something that would be of actual use to me in my life but don't let them hear me say that. We were rich and I needed the money to keep going to this school so I'd put up with the shitty humans that shared my DNA until I had no use for their money.

"RISE AND SHINE SLEEPYHEAD!" Nicole yelled bouncing on my bed. I groaned and turned on my side, away from the sunlight coming through the window. Fuck the sun, who needed it anyway, we could all survive in darkness.

"Oh screw off Nicole, you don't have to meet your shitty family today," I said as I buried my face in the pillow. Nicole had the nicest family I'd ever seen, they were all loving and warm and had rainbows and butterflies coming out of their asses. It was sickening is what it was.

Then again, Harry had the same exact kind of family which pissed me off to no end because it was unfair how such a shitty human being got such a loving family while I was stuck with the spawns of Satan.

"Come on Saorise, it can't be that bad," she said to me. I snorted at the statement but got out of bed nonetheless. I might as well get this day over with. Maybe I could fake being sick or something like that.

"You don't know my family Nicole, they're absolute savages," I said as I brushed my teeth in front of the sink. I bent over, spat in the sink and then went back to scrubbing my pearly whites.

"I'm spending an entire day with my mum who I can guarantee is going to be criticizing everything about me starting from the way that I look at things to the way that I've tied my shoes," I said dragging a comb through my hair and tying it up.

"I'm sure you're exaggerating," Nicole said. For some reason no one ever believed me when it came to my family. It wasn't until they spent a day with me that they realized that I was not joking when I told them about my family. That's all it took as well, one day and I'd never see those people ever again.

"I'm really not, I'll be my mother right now and act like her," I said and immediately fixed my posture to what my mother would stand like. Rigid back, unimpressed expression on my face, hands folded in front of me with my feet together.

"Good grief child, were you raised by wolves, fix that hair, it's positively atrocious and those clothes don't even deserve to be sent to Goodwill. How on earth do you expect to catch a man wearing those types of shoes? How on earth do you go out in public like such an animosity, I'm so glad that you're not my daughter -although I can't say that mine is any better." Nicole stared at me with a shocked expression on her face. And she thought I was joking about my mother.

I walked over to my closet, threw open the doors and looked through my clothes trying to find something suitable enough for my mother. No doubt she'd still find something wrong with it and I'd have to listen to her go on about it but at least it would be better than hearing her go on and on and on about how my ripped jeans made me look like a whore. That was a conversation I wasn't looking forward to having again.

I sighed and ended up on settling on a pale yellow sundress with small sleeves and a belt around the waist. I tugged the thing on and turned my back asking Nicole to zip up the rest of my dress. Once that part was finished I went hunting for a pair of nude coloured wedges that should've been named platform wedges because they were so high. I hadn't worn high heels in a while so I had to walk around my room a few times to get the hang of them.

I tied up my hair in a neat ponytail, put on some pale pink lip gloss and after saying goodbye to Nicole I went to hunt down the demons sent by Hades to torture me all of my life. Unfortunately for me, I found another demon instead of the pack that I was looking for.

"What do you want now Styles?" I asked Harry sighing in defeat.

"I didn't know that you had a body underneath all of that uniform Whetherton," Harry replied looking me over appreciatively. I grimaced and stepped away from him. I'd been dressing like this every year for Meet the Family Day so I don't really understand how he hasn't noticed me before.

"And I didn't think that you could get any more perverted yet here we are dungbrain," I replied as we entered the Dining Hall which was free of tables and chairs and instead full of families and students.

"And is your family here today Saorise, is that why you're dressed that way?" Harry asked me as we stood in the doorway and looked for our families. I was looking harder than he was because I was the only one out of the two of us who actually wanted to get away from the current conversation. Of course I was dressed this way for my family, I can't believe that he was actually flattering himself thinking that I was doing it for him.

"Unfortunately yes," I replied and gave a small sigh of relief when I caught sight of my mother and her stiff posture, my father on his phone and my brother's with their two newest girlfriends on their arms.

"I see them over there, have fun with your family," and without a backward glance at Harry I made my way through the crowd of people that were happy to see one another and over to my family who practically stank of old and new money. My mother finally turned to face me when I got close enough and without changing the haughty expression on her face asked me,

"Is he rich?"

"Hello to you too mum," I muttered to myself. Nothing like a warm greeting to give you that fuzzy feeling inside of your stomach.

"You didn't answer my question, is he rich Saorise?"

"Does it matter mum, if I don't like him I'm not going to spend my life with him no matter how much money he has," I replied and couldn't help but feel angry when my mother simply rolled her eyes at me like she was tired of my antics. I made a very good point though, why would I marry a man who I downright despised even if he had money? I should ask dad how he puts up with mum; does the money just get his mind off of her or something? Is that why he's always so busy, so that he won't have to deal with mummy dearest?

"No, I don't think he's rich."

"Of course he isn't, I shouldn't trust you to make a good match for yourself. I'll need to find you someone myself, with your record in education and poor decisions no wonder you haven't managed to find a man yet," my mouth dropped open in shock.  I was barely seventeen! I was in no way shape or form even thinking about getting married! I was barely thinking about boys let alone getting married!

"Honey, lay off of her, will you. You're constantly nagging her to find someone rich. Have some faith in our daughter will you," my dad since . . . well, ever. Everyone in our small group turned to stare at him in shock while he went back to yelling in his phone.

"Don't you tell me what to do you horrendous human being," my mother snapped at him viciously. I turned to stare at her totally stunned. Never once in my life had I seen my mother lose her cool and snap at anyone like that. She was usually so composed and always ready with a biting comeback. That and she didn't deem anyone worthy of losing her temper with.

I shook my head and turned towards my brothers and their latest shags.

One of them looked like she was going to the beach or going to strip naked or something because of the little clothing that she had on. She was giggling at something that was probably not very funny and twirling her jet black hair. The other had an almost bored expression on her face and was dressed in a sophisticated pant suit with her hair up in a bun and a folder under one arm.

This was the first and probably last time that I would ever see my brother with a decent girl on his arm. This chick looked like she'd take even less shit from people than I did and like she would take you down as much as I would if you pissed her off. She wouldn't do it physically, she was too put together for that, no, she would completely and utterly destroy you with words. I had feeling that by the time that she was done with you you'd be humiliated and crying.

I bet you she was a lawyer.

"Angus, who's your latest prostitute," I asked my brother giving him a sickening smile. The girl standing next to him immediately stopped giggling and twirling her hair and instead glared at me as if she would kill me. I highly doubted it; I could probably take her down with a kick to her shins.

"Joseph, it seems you've finally found someone who looks like they actually have more than two brain cells."

"I'm Julia, Julia May," the girl said turning semi-friendly and holding out her hand for me to shake. "And you are?"

"The unfortunate spawn of that demon woman," I replied referring to my mother who sniffed behind me to show her anger. Her face split into a shit-eating grin and right then and there I knew that I'd immediately become her favourite person out of everyone so far. This wasn't saying much because everyone else in my family knew jackshit about making friends or being nice.

"And you told me that no one in your family had a sense of humor," Julia said to my brother accusingly. I raised an eyebrow -a technique I had perfected in front of the mirror over the years.

"I will have you know dearest Joseph that I am a very humorous person."

"As riveting as this idle talk is, can we please get on the helicopter and fly into that sad place that you call a village," mother interrupted. I gritted my teeth and took deep breaths. I was actually very fond of our little village. It was beautiful, everyone there was friendly and they had one of the best bookstores I'd ever been to. I absolutely hated that my mother called it a sad village simply because there was nothing with a designer label in it.

As we made our way out of the hall, everyone seemed to get out of my mother's way. This always happened, there was just something about her that scared people and the way that she looked at them just made them all kind of wither and die on the spot.

I was chatting with Julia seeing as she was the only one out of our entire group that was willing to talk to me and who I could stand when Harry sidled up to me and slipped his arm through mine as if we were best friends. Julia and I stopped talking and turned to look at him waiting for him to explain something. Julia with a curious expression and me with an annoyed one.

"So how is Meet the Family Day going so far?" Harry asked me as if we were old friends who talked all the time.

"It's going absolutely brilliant, can't you see my mother ignoring and judging me, my father is too busy on the phone doing business and my brother's over there with the skank," I replied harshly. I couldn't stop the tears from coming to eyes. I hated this, I hated my family and I hated crying. Meet the Family Day was always the worst day, it was the day that everyone else got to rub in my face how loving and caring their families were.

"Saorise, are you crying?" Harry asked concernedly.

"No, do you see any tears on my face?" I snapped at him.

"Okay, fine, are you going to cry?"

"No, Saorise Whetherton doesn't do crying," I said. Harry walked with Julia and I just a little bit longer to make sure that I was okay. He took his arm out from mine, gave my hand a friendly squeeze and went back to his own family giving me a look that said I could talk to him any time.

Talk about bipolar; he goes from being a total sexist arse with an ego larger than our solar system to someone worried about whether I'm going to cry.

I couldn't help but watch Harry as he went back to his family whose faces all lit up when he came back to them with his arms wide open. Just what I needed to see, another reminder that my family would never be like that, in fact, it was even worse now because it appeared that my parents were fighting.

We made our way outside and to the waiting helicopter that everyone was staring at. Everyone in our group completely ignored the stares and whispers and instead clambered on board and seated ourselves in our seats. Immediately we began the usual procedure of tying ourselves in.

While the helicopter flew over the trees and everyone else, everyone on board was silent. The only sound was the helicopter blades spinning above us. Mother seemed to be looking me over and surprisingly enough she didn't have the usual look of disgust on her face when looking at what I was wearing. I gave her a surprised look and for the first time since I was most likely born; my mother gave me a smile.

"Mum, are you okay?" I asked her.

"You look quite pretty today Saorise, I quite like the dress that you're wearing," she said stiffly. It was the first nice thing that she'd said to me since ever and even now it looked like it was killing her to say it. Was my mother trying to change? Was she trying to be nicer?

Had Nana died or something? Had _someone_ died? Was I going to be hearing bad news or something? Why on earth was my mother being so goddamn nice!

"Erm, thanks . . . I guess," I said uncertainly. Meanwhile Julia was just laughing her ass from next to me and trying to pass it off as coughing. She's not fooling anyone though, I know you're laughing. Yeah, that's right. I can see you Julia, stop hiding.

The helicopter landed just outside the village and we all climbed out. It was an especially warm day for fall so no one had bothered bringing jackets since the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Things were just getting weirder and weirder today. A mother trying to be nice, good weather in fall, was the world going to end or something? Was I having a dream?

Things just kept getting weirder though, my mother offered to go and look around the village with me, and Julia. Angus' girlfriend wanted to go with him so we let her. We went to a couple of shops and I tried on the most outrageous things to piss off mum and see what she would do. She kept her trap shut though and looking like someone was twisting a knife in her heart declared that every outfit I wore was nice looking.

Of course, at some point she looked like she was about to spit fire and tell me to take off whatever I was wearing because it was too inappropriate but she stopped herself just in time. She barely moved her lips when she told me that what I was wearing brought out the colour of my eyes.

I don't think I've had this much fun with mother ever. I knew she had something to tell me otherwise she wouldn't turn from fire breathing dragon to semi-loving mother for no reason. What the news that was going to be told to me however was at the very back of my mind and the only thing that I thought about was pissing off mum as much as I could and seeing if I could get her to snap.

Julia was enjoying herself as well. She'd look up every time I walked out of a changing room looking like a hooker and start laughing her arse off. Sure everyone in the stores stared at us but we were Whethertons and we were rich and we didn't give any fucks. Under normal circumstances mother would've caused a scene already but because she wanted to be in my good graces or something she kept her mouth shut.

Turns out Julia wasn't as uptight as she had originally appeared. She was actually really nice and easy going compared to what my first impression of her had been. I had no idea how my brother had somehow managed to snag a girl like her. I didn't understand how a girl like Julia who was smart, charming, funny and nice could go for my brother who on a daily basis acted like a complete shitface.

I wasn't the only one who approved of her however; mum seemed to like her as well. It was mostly due to the fact that Julia was already a success and well off.

The three of us were making our way down to the local pub to meet up with everyone else and while mother walked ahead, Julia and I lagged behind so that we could talk.

"So, tell me, how does a girl like you get with a brother like mine?" I asked her as I looped my arm through hers.

"Well, I was walking down the street, on the phone, talking with a client of mine and he whistles, says something sexist and I turned around, still on the phone and I told him where men like him with a brain capacity smaller than a peanut could shove it. And then I went on to say how men are usually making up for something in one department by having lots of it in another department and how by the looks of it, your brother wasn't packing anything in his crotch or his brain. That shut him up real good."

"Will you be my sister-in-law, I would love to be related to you," I said in between laughs. My brother had just gotten shown up by a girl, in front of his buddies no less.

"He practically groveled at my feet for a date, it was hilarious but at the same time kind of cute. I gave him a chance and ever since that first date he's been a perfect gentlemen to me and every other female that we see as well," Julia said. I never thought I would see the day when a girl would make my brother stop being an asshole. This was brand new information.

Why was nobody celebrating? Someone in my family was actually being nice and decent instead of acting like cold-hearted and greedy bastards.

"Will you two hurry up," my mother snapped from the doorway. Looks like good old mum is back then I see. No more nice and fake compliments for me anymore. We're back to business. Julia and I hurried towards her and managed to squeeze inside the pub just before the door closed. We followed mum to the back of the pub where everyone was seated in a corner and sat ourselves down around the table.

"You're probably wondering what we have to tell you," my father said for once not his phone and his full attention on me. I looked between my parents who were looking me dead in the eye seriously and everyone else who was looking down at their laps as if they didn't want to see how I would react.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Your father and I are getting a divorce," my mother said.

"Actually, we've already gotten the divorce, we just wanted to tell you," my father added in. My brain however had gone completely blank. There seemed to be this faint screaming in my head that was just getting louder and louder. How could my parents of all people be getting a divorce, or divorced as my father so lovingly corrected.

My parents couldn't be divorced. I mean, sure they weren't the most loving people out there and they didn't tell each other or any of their children that they loved them but they couldn't be getting a divorce. My mother couldn't let this happen, as much as I hated to admit this she was the rock in our family. She was the only reason that we all hadn't left each other; she wouldn't _let_ us leave each other.

How could my parents be getting a divorce! This had to be some kind of prank, this couldn't be real. The day had been going fine and then they drop _this_ on me! WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THEM! No, this had to be a lie.

And while I could deny, deny, deny that my parents were getting a divorce the looks of hate that they kept throwing each other didn't go unnoticed. The way that they sat away from each other instead of towards showed that there was no love between those two and probably hadn't been in a while. The way that they made every attempt to not even brush against each other accidentally showed that this was real. My parents were getting a divorce.

_My_ parents were getting a divorce.

My _parents_ were getting a divorce.

My parents were _divorced_.

"YOU'RE WHAT!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.


	5. The Power of Coffee

The entire pub went silent. There was not one sound coming out of anybody's mouth in the entire room, everyone had turned to stare at me, the girl screaming her head off. I glanced around the bar at all of the shocked and curious faces before focusing back on my family.

How could my parents be getting a divorce? My entire life, they'd been the only constant thing there and now all of a sudden they were getting a divorce. What was I supposed to do when I went home now? I'd have no parents arguing to listen to and even if they weren't arguing, now I would be very aware of the fact that there was someone missing from the house.

Who was I going to stay with, or had that been decided for me without my knowledge as well?

"A divorce, Saorise, honestly, you act as if you've never heard of one," my mother said, looking at me in disdain. She hated whenever anyone made a scene in a public place, like right now, she couldn't stand it when people stuck their nose in her business.

"But, you're my parents," I said weakly.

"And we still will be even if we're not married," my father said leaning forward as if to take one of my hands in his. I moved away from him and he awkwardly pulled his arm back and resumed his previous position.

"I-I-I just can't -I mean, this is just-" I stuttered at a loss for words. "I need to leave, I need to get out," I finally managed to say. "Lovely seeing you all but I've got to go, nice to meet you Julia," I said as I pushed back my chair and stepped over my brother's legs.

"Saorise -" Julia said, getting halfway out of her seat and reaching for my arm. I moved out of her reach and tried to get away from my family.

"No, don't," I snapped harshly. A hurt looked crossed Julia's face but she didn't try to stop me again. I took one last look at my two brothers who were picking at their nails in an uninterested manner before turning my back on my family and shoving my way out of the pub. I pushed past people without saying sorry and managed to step outside and breathe in fresh air.

It felt good to be outside; the pub had started to feel too small, cramped and crowded for my taste. Everything had slowly started to spin but with each deep breath that I took, the spinning got better before it completely disappeared. I wandered around the little village with no idea of where I was going.

The colourful shop windows didn't appeal to me anymore and simply faded into the background. The chattering of people passing me and the sound of their footsteps all blended together to make one great noise. I found myself on a random bench next to a shop. I sat there and stared down at my shoes and ignored everyone else.

I was all alone for a few minutes, no one bothered me and I could process the news that my parents were getting divorced. I suppose it made sense, I don't think I'd ever seen my parents be loving towards one another, and it was only a matter of time before they got so sick of each other that they called it quits.

I came out of my own little world and took notice of everything around me when I heard the creaking of the wooden bench. I looked over at the brown-haired boy next to me with two cups of coffee in his hand, the boy that I hated and had ruined one of my past dates. Harry looked over at me with a smile and handed me one of the cups of coffee that he was carrying.

"Hey there stranger," he said as I took one of the cups out of his hand and took a sip. Surprisingly, it was exactly how I drank my coffee. The very last thing I'd expected was Harry to get me coffee that I liked. In fact, the last thing that I expected was to have him sit down next to me and be nice.

"Hey," I replied softly as I cradled my coffee in my hands.

"You want to talk about it?" Harry asked me after a moment of silence.

"About what?" I asked warily.

"Your parents getting divorced."

"News travels that fast huh?" I replied with a smile. It was amazing how nosy everyone in my school could be. You'd think they'd have something better to do than to spread gossip about the latest goings on of the Ice Queen.

"No, your family just isn't very quiet during your reunions, you in particular," Harry added, nudging my knee playfully. The smile on my face got bigger.

"Shut up," I mumbled and shoved him lightly.

"Come on, tell me what's happening," Harry replied turning serious all of a sudden.

"They're not _getting_ a divorce, they're _already_ divorced, they just thought they would do me the courtesy of informing me of this new development in our family so that I wouldn't be confused when I went home for the summer and I found one of my parents missing," I said with a sigh.

"You look like you're halfway between shocked and understanding," Harry observed.

"It makes sense why they're getting a divorce, I've known that my parents aren't exactly happy with each other for a while but it's just that they dropped this on me out of nowhere. There was no hints or anything like that, they just show up, dump the news on me and expect me to deal with it. They've never been all that considerate of my feelings before but I would've thought that they'd want to break news like this to me carefully," I said, the frustrations clear in my voice. I took another sip of my coffee and frowned down at my knees as if they were the cause of all of my problems.

"There's got to be something else bothering you besides the way that they told you," Harry said and the way that he was looking at me told me that he wouldn't believe me if I denied it. I think this boy and I fought too many times if he could read me like a book now.

"It's the fact that they're getting divorced, I knew it would eventually happen but at the same time I was hoping that they wouldn't. I knew that they were unhappy with each other but I still wished that they would've stayed together for my sake. For once do something for me because it made me happy. Is it bad that I think that?" I asked Harry. His eyebrows furrowed and he thought about it for a moment. When he finally answered me he was speaking even slower than he usually did, as if he was trying to think of how to best say whatever he wanted to say.

"It's not bad because I can understand why you would want that, but at the same time, it's not fair to them to put them through that." My jaw dropped open at the answer. It would be unfair of me to put them through that?! What about the fact that they put me through even worse than that, am I just supposed to forget that?!

"How would that be unfair? What's so wrong with them getting a taste of their own medicine?" I demanded angrily. Harry didn't seem at all moved by my anger and he didn't take back what he said.

"Saorise, if you made them live with each other when they're clearly unhappy and despise one another, it wouldn't make you any better than them. You would be on the same level of cruelty because you're both causing each other to be unnecessarily unhappy," Harry pointed out and effectively shut me up.

"It's not like it would be on the same level," I muttered childishly.

"Maybe not but you'd still be making them unhappy," Harry said shrugging.

"Oh what do you know about anything," I snapped back angrily. Now he was just annoying me, why couldn't he have just agreed with everything that I had said and been done with it.

"My parents are divorced as well so I actually know quite a bit about your situation," Harry said calmly, like it was no big deal. I stared at him with wide eyes, I never knew that his parents were divorced, how was he so okay with it!

"Has your relationship with both of your parents ever changed?" I asked. I hoped that I wasn't prying but I needed to know if something would change with my parents.

"Well, I don't get to see my dad as much anymore but we get on alright, I don't hate him or anything but yeah, we get on just like we would if he was still married to my mum. My stepdad is great too though, we don't have the usual hate relationship that you would expect," Harry added when he saw the look of surprise on my face.

We sat there on the bench for a few minutes and watched as people walked by us and into shops or go and buy some lunch. Everyone looked so happy and relaxed with their families and I couldn't help but feel a little jealous. I'd never have that with my family and I never did have something like that with my family.

"Thanks Harry," I finally said, breaking the comfortable silence between us.

"You're very welcome, now come on, let's go have some fun," Harry said pulling me to my feet.

"Where are we going?" I asked in confusion as he pulled me back towards the pub that I'd just left.

"It's Meet the Family Day, and since you obviously have no intention of spending the rest of your day with _your_ family, we're going to spend it with mine," Harry said, smiling back at me as he tugged me towards a group of people. They all turned to face Harry and me as we got closer and closer to them. I could see the family resemblance on their faces and I tried to tug my hand out of Harry's grip once I realized that these people were related to him.

Oh no, oh no, I couldn't do this, I couldn't meet his family! Why was he taking me to meet his family!? They probably wouldn't even like me all that much; I was like the outsider in this little group. I would be the third wheel and everyone would try to include me in conversation but it would end painfully once they realized that I had nothing to contribute.

This would go down in history as the worst and most awkward day ever. Why would Harry do this to me?! Oh, because he's evil, that's right, that's exactly why he would do this, stupid prick embarrassing me in front of his family.

"No, Harry, I don't think this is a really good idea," I said as I tried to pull my hand out of his. All that I succeeded in doing was making his grip on me tighten so that it was impossible for my hand to escape his hold.

"Would you relax, you'll be fine, they're not going to eat you alive," Harry said as picked up his pace. I had to jog to keep up with his long strides and trust me, that wasn't an easy thing to do when you were wearing the shoes that I was.

Once we finally stopped in front of his family, I looked anywhere but at them. Maybe if I stayed quiet and didn't make noise they'd ignore me and this entire thing would go by with as little pain as possible. They probably wouldn't even remember me by the time that this day was over and I'd never have to see Harry's family again.

Plus, they looked so friendly and warm and it was kind of freaking me out. I didn't know how to work with warm and friendly people. I was used to dealing with cold, arrogant and conceited people. I wasn't made to deal with this. My arsenal was filled with sarcasm and mean comebacks; they weren't filled with compliments and ‘thank yous.'

"Mum, dad, stepdad, Gemma, meet Saorise, Saorise, meet my family," Harry said making what I thought was the worst introduction to ever exist.

"So this is Saorise," Gemma said looking me up and down closely. I avoided looking at her, maybe if I made eye contact with her she'd be able to find out all of my deepest secrets.

Wait.

What did she mean, ‘So this is Saorise?' Has Harry been telling his family about me? Did he tell them about the bet? Do they know that I'm planning to destroy their son? Oh my God, this situation just got about a billion times more complicated. How do I communicate with this strange species!?

"Harry has told us so much about you," Gemma said warmly and held out her hand for me to shake. I put my hand in hers and shook it before snatching it back and putting it behind my back.

"He has?" I asked incredulously. I looked over at Harry to see a pink flush creeping up his neck and into his face. Why would Harry Styles, the boy who hated my guts talk to his family about me? Did he just send them letters complaining about me, or did he talk on Skype about how I was a huge bitch?

"Oh yeah, he won't shut up about you, Saorise this and Saorise that," Gemma went on, acting as if she didn't know that she was embarrassing her brother. Harry was an alarming shade of red now; I was worried his head was going to explode some time soon.

"Gem, that was when I was fourteen and I had a crush on her," Harry said, his voice going an octave higher than usual.

"Oh yeah, that's when it got really bad, now he just mentions you occasionally," Gemma said, leaning in towards me as if she was telling me a secret.

"What have you been telling them about me!?" I cried, turning to face Harry as I planted both of my hands on my hips. Thank God he'd finally let go of me, I thought I'd lost circulation in my hand or something.

"Nothing bad," Harry replied defensively.

"And what is this about you having a crush on me when we were fourteen?"

"It was when we were fourteen, okay, I've moved on from it, I don't like you at all anymore," Harry said as he ruffled his hair. I scowled at the movement; that was so damn annoying. Why did he always have to ruffle up his hair like that, like I really needed another reminded of how stupid it was.

"Why didn't you tell me you liked me, I just thought you were a giant asshole because you were so mean to me!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms in the air in frustration.

"I can see why he used to like her," Gemma said from next to me.

"Does it really matter anymore?" Harry asked exasperatedly.

"Yes, of course it -no, no it doesn't, you're right, it doesn't," I said changing my answer. His family obviously didn't know about the bet otherwise they wouldn't be so nice to me and the very last thing that I wanted to do would be to alert them to that little fact right now. Harry looked at me in confusion; I was the last person anyone would expect to change their answer about something.

I mouthed the words, ‘the bet,' at him a couple of times until he finally caught on to what I was saying.

"So, where's your family Saorise?" Harry's mum asked me. Of course that's the first thing that I'm asked when I meet someone's family.

"Don't know, probably flying off to the mansion again with my mother talking about how I'm unladylike and hopeless because I created a scene in the pub," I replied shrugging. It wasn't a far off guess; I'd been told in the past that that was what she did on the flight's home. It was one of the few times that my brother's were of some actual use to me.

Harry's family stared at me wide-eyed; I touched my face self-consciously thinking that there was something on it to make them stare at me. I'd been told that my nose was too small so that was something that I was a little scared of people pointing out. I didn't understand how you could have a small nose though, wasn't that the entire point, to have a small nose instead of a big one?

"What is there something on my face?" I asked worriedly.

"You've got a mansion?" Harry's sister asked me in awe. I shot her a confused look but nodded to show my agreement.

"Yeah, I'm rich, didn't Harry tell you that?" I asked. If he'd been talking to his family about me then obviously he must've mentioned this to them. Telling someone that you're rich is one of those things that you put on your online dating profile so people know what they're getting into. If he hadn't told them that I was rich then what the hell had he told them about me? It's not like he knew all that much to begin with, considering that the two of us never talked and were, more often than not, at each other's throats.

"No, that's actually one of the things that he left out when he talked about you," she replied.

"Harry, if you didn't tell them that I was rich then, just out of curiosity, what exactly _did_ you tell them about me? It's not like you know all that much anyway since we almost never talk to each other?" I turned to face him and waited for an answer.

"I told them other things that I would rather not mention since my manliness has already been reduced to almost nothing," Harry added when he saw that I was about to ask more questions.

"Why don't we all get going and we can learn more about Saorise as we go, okay?" Harry's mum asked as she shepherded us down the streets and into an ice-cream shop.

The shop wasn't all that full and there were plenty of tables available for customers to sit at. Harry, his dad and stepdad immediately headed for an empty table near the shop window in a corner and dragged the one closest to it over so that everyone could be seated. I was left to order ice-cream with his mum and sister.

Great.

No doubt I was going to be in for some girl talk and they'd want to find out more about my family. They were probably already thinking that I was dating their son and was wondering whether I'd make a good future wife. No doubt they'd want to know about my family and count that as one of the things wrong with me.

I wasn't one of those people that jumped at the chance to talk about their family and having met them, you can understand why that's the case. It's not like I was jumping with excitement to explain to everyone why my family totally _sucked._ People don't exactly want to hear that your own mother thought you were a lost cause since you were a little kid, or that you don't love your family all that much.

"So Saorise, do you get on with your family?" Harry's mum asked me with a polite smile. It's like I'd predicted this was going to happen or something, I swear to God, looks like I'll be having a monosyllable conversation until I can get my ice-cream and join the rest of the family.

I clasped my hands behind my back and looked down at the brightly tiled floor with little pictures of ice-cream all over it. The entire shop was a faint shade of pink with white chairs and tables that were covered in yellow table cloths.

"No, not really," I replied tonelessly.

"Oh, why not?" she asked in surprise.

"If you'd met my mother you'd know why I don't get along with them," was my reply.

"What about the rest of your family, do you get along with them?" Harry's mum asked me, dropping the subject of my mum. Clearly she'd caught on to the fact that my mother wasn't the person you wanted to know about if she wanted me to impress her.

"I don't get along with them either Mrs . . . " I trailed off, waiting for her to tell me her name.

"Call me Anne, deary and why don't you get along with them?" she asked me. It seemed that she was genuinely curious and interested about my family. There was no judgment coming from her yet, it seemed that I hadn't screwed up. Gemma on the other hand was trying to act like she was bored and wasn't listening in on our conversation but from the way that she kept glancing over I could tell that it was all just an act.

"My father is a workaholic who's always shut up in his study and never comes out. I'm amazed he knows I exist with the amount of attention that he gives me. My brothers are complete arseholes who don't give two shites about me. Until recently, both of them were just interested in shagging girls, but one of them found a girl with some actual substance and who's not afraid to kick him to the curb if he mistreats her.

"My mother is a judgmental, arrogant, cold, contemptuous woman who considers me a mistake. That is why I don't get along with my family Anne," I replied with an overly sweet smile. Looks like I wasn't going to be sticking to monosyllabic answers after all. She wanted to know about my family, well now she's gotten the full scoop on me.

Anne was quiet for a few minutes as we slowly moved up the line and got closer to the counter. I suspected that she was thinking about how she could tell that I was no good the nice way. Maybe she'd tell me to stay away from her son because I was damaged or something other like that. It wouldn't be the first time that a boy's mother told me that.

They all seemed to forget that I wasn't the one that was damaged, my family was damaged and I was most certainly not my family.

I went up the counter and looked through the flavours and tried to decide which one I liked. I wanted to try the cheesecake because I loved cheesecake but would it really taste good in ice-cream flavour? Maybe I should have it with vanilla, that way if I didn't like the cheesecake I could have something else to fall back on.

Having made my decision, I walked back to Anne and stood at her side, waiting for her to say something.

"How would you like to have Christmas dinner over at our house?" Anne asked me with a warm smile. I started in surprise that was the very last thing that I had expected. I'd been prepared for some sniff of scorn and being told off but instead, here she was, offering to let me spend Christmas with her family.

"I realize that it's a bit weird for me to offer and I'm sure that it won't compare to anything that you might have at your house with the very best food and all that, but I figured since you don't seem fond of your family, you'd like to spend Christmas with mine," Anne hurried on to say when I hadn't responded in two minutes. It was the small smile of encouragement that Gemma sent me from behind her mother's back that finally brought me back to my senses.

"I'd love to come over to your house for Christmas dinner," I blurted out, completely ignoring anything else that she might've gone on to say. It was the nicest thing that anyone had ever offered me and I couldn't believe that this woman who didn't even know me, had met me only today, was inviting me to have dinner with her family.

Not even Nicole's mother had offered me an invitation to spend a holiday over at her house. In fact, there were times when even my own family didn't invite to me spend holiday's with them. I just got a one line email once in a while saying that we were having a family dinner on a holiday and I was welcome to show up if I wanted.

"Good, then it's settled then," Anne said, her smile brightening. She wrapped an arm around my shoulder and squeezed me to her side affectionately.

"What if Harry doesn't want me there though?" I asked worriedly, the thought only occurring to me right now.

"If he doesn't want you there then tough luck, you're my guest and it's my house, when he starts paying for it he can decide who sets foot in it and who doesn't, don't you worry about Harry," Anne said dismissively and stepped up to the counter to give the person behind it our order. I added in my two cents by saying that I wanted cheesecake with vanilla flavoured ice-cream.

"I'd offer to pay for these but I didn't bring any money with me, I didn't think I'd end up needing it," I said apologetically when I saw the amount that had to be paid. I was going to be spending the day with my stinking rich family, if I was going to buy anything then the least they could've done would be to pay for anything that I wanted.

"Don't worry about it, it's my treat," Anne said and handed over the right amount of money to the cashier. Gemma took two of the ice-cream cups and made her way back to the table with them, she'd been silent the entire time that Anne and I were talking. Besides that little smile, she hadn't done or said much but I had a feeling that she was okay with me, even if she hadn't said it out loud.

Once we were all seated, everyone seemed to relax, I didn't know what it was but everyone just sort of stopped being stiff or something and relaxed and talked more freely. Everyone was immediately talking about childhood memories and stupid things they had done. Harry was groaning into his hands in embarrassment as Gemma told a particularly embarrassing story about him and a girl when he was little.

Then they somehow moved on to filling each other in on everything that had happened while separated. This uncle did that and that aunt said this, one cousin was in the hospital with one hundred and twenty-four stitches in their back because of a car accident, Cousin Freddie was up to his usual pranks and was working for Starbucks.

It felt like a family, everyone was so easygoing and warm and you could tell by the way that they talked to each other that everyone loved one another and cared. I'd never seen or been a part of anything like this before. It was nice to be surrounded by people who actually cared about one another instead of being surrounded by people using one another to get ahead in life.

I didn't mind that I wasn't in the conversation, I didn't feel left out at all, in fact, I'm pretty sure that everything being told was for my benefit as much as it was for everyone else's. I was more at home and comfortable in this ice-cream shop with these people I didn't know than I was with my own family.

"Hey Saorise, ever wonder how Harry got that scar above his eyebrow, and that one near his lip?" Gemma asked, turning her attention to me. Harry paled and then flushed a bright red. Clearly this story was going to be an entertaining one.

"Oh God, not this again Gem, you told them to every single girl that you meet that's with me," Harry groaned and hid his face in his arms.

"Yeah, I suppose I have," she answered with a shrug.

"That one above his eyebrow he got running with scissors, but he likes to tell everyone that it was because he was in a knife fight. It's a lie though, he was really running with scissors and ended up giving himself a cut when he ran into a wall," Gemma said gleefully.

"That one by his lip, he was being chased by a dog and he tripped and got a rock stuck in there. He cried so much when mum pulled it out, I wish I'd taped it so you could've seen it," Gemma said sighing as the memory came back to her.

"You ran away from a dog?" I asked Harry amused.

"It was a big dog okay!" Harry exclaimed loudly. I bit my lip to stop myself from bursting out into loud, unattractive laughter.

"Stop lying, it was a Chihuahua named Daisy," Gemma said with a snort. I clapped a hand to my mouth and tried to stifle the little squeaks of laughter escaping me.

"And it was a vicious Chihuahua," Harry replied with a nod of his head and an air of importance about him.

"You guys are ridiculous," I said in between my laughter. I'd completely given up on trying hiding it; those two were just so damn ridiculous.

Once we'd left the ice-cream shop all of us wandered around a little bit and looked in a few shops. I'd spent a little bit too long drooling at the window display of the candy shop so Harry dragged me inside and made me pick out the candy that I wanted and then paid for it.

Eventually we'd had to leave though because it was getting late and we were expected back at school before the gates closed. We said goodbye to Harry's family, who had to take a plane back to their town, and we slowly made our way up to the school as the gates closed behind Harry and I with a clang and were locked.

"Why did you do it?" I asked Harry as we took a seat on the steps leading up to the front door. The bag holding the candy was sitting between us as we slowly went through every piece of candy in it.

"Why did I do what?" Harry asked me through his mouthful of lollipop.

"Why did you invite me to hang out with your family and be nice to me and listen to what I had to say, why did you do it?"

"I heard what went on in that pub with your family and you didn't look like the happiest person that day, I figured I could stop being a jerk for a couple of hours and actually be nice. You looked like you needed someone to talk to," he added with a shrug, like it was no big deal.

"I appreciate it."

"Good, ‘cause I'm not doing it again," Harry said, standing up and dusting off his pants. He smile and helped me to my feet. I picked up the bag of candy and we made our way inside of the school.

"This doesn't mean that you've got the upper hand on the bet though," I said breaking the silence with a smirk.

"Damn."


	6. Don't You Just Love Rumours

"So I heard that someone was invited over for Christmas by a certain Styles family," Nicole said, sliding her chair over to mine. We were sitting together for breakfast, an idea that I had not come up with but was unable to go against. If I told Nicole to leave me alone, chances were that she wasn't going to because she had gossip.

When I didn't answer right away Nicole took it as an invitation to lean in as close as she possibly could. She was all over my personal space and it was beginning to make me just a tad uncomfortable. That was what her tactic probably was; make me as uncomfortable as she possibly could so that I would talk.

"Where on earth did you hear something like that?" I asked nonchalantly. I hadn't even told anyone about what had happened yesterday. I mean sure, the entire school probably knew that my parents were getting a divorce and all but surely not all of them knew that I was going to be spending Christmas with Harry of all people.

"Where haven't I heard it from," Nicole countered. "It's all over the school, no one can stop talking about the fact that Saorise actually agreed to spend holidays with the person that she hates most."

Instead of responding to what she'd said, I reached for another piece of toast that I could butter and eat and began to plan the slow and painful death of Harry Styles. I knew the boy was an idiot and a huge ass the majority of the time but I had no idea that he was also incapable of keeping anything to himself. Or maybe his friends were all just gossips. Maybe I'd flay them alive as well just for shits and giggles.

Nicole's sharp and bony fingers poking my arm viciously brought me back to the present. I slapped Nicole's hand away and glared at her as I rubbed my arm. There was probably going to be a huge bruise tomorrow.

"Bloody hell, it's true alright, now leave me alone!" I snapped at her.

"But why?" Nicole asked, her eyebrows coming together in confusion and her head tilting to one side. "I mean, I've woken up in the middle of the night and heard you muttering threats in your sleep, why would you agree to Christmas with him?"

"As it turns out, Harry's family is actually a really decent one; he appears to be the only demon spawn out of his entire relatives. And besides, bitching at Harry while he's in the room is bound to be a lot better than listening to my parents take shots at each other whenever they're in the same room and having my mother criticize every single thing about me. I think I've made a pretty good deal, it would be better if Harry wasn't there either but we can't always have our cake and eat it too," I said with a shrug.

I shoved the last few bites of my breakfast into my mouth and checked my bag to make sure that it was closed and that I hadn't lost anything. Once I was sure that I had everything that I would need for the day, I got out of my chair.

"Where are you going?" Nicole asked curiously.

"What every other normal girl does in the morning: commit homicide," I replied with a large grin and then I left. I was going to have a talk with a certain someone about keeping their mouths shut about certain things. My reputation was in jeopardy here! I couldn't have people walking around thinking that I was best friends with Harry Styles all of a sudden. What if they thought that just because I was spending Christmas with him that we were dating? No, I couldn't have that. That would be cruel and unusual punishment.

I mean, I could be a real bitch sometimes but I didn't deserve that. I was a bitch, it's not like I killed someone.

Hell would freeze over before Harry and I started braiding each other's hair and dancing along to Kesha.

I zeroed in on his table and marched over purposefully. If anyone stood in my way, well, they were going to get trampled that was for sure. You did not want to get in the way of Saorise when she was on a mission.

Harry cut off in the middle of a conversation that he seemed to be having with his friends when he finally noticed my glare. He leaned back in his seat, a shit-eating grin taking over his face and spread his arms out wide, smacking a girl on the back of the head as he did so. Her indignant cry of pain went completely unnoticed.

"There she is the light of my life!" Harry exclaimed loudly enough that everyone in the near vicinity heard and turned to stare at the two of us. Brilliant, just what I wanted, to further the rumours even more by that declaration of affection.

"Bite me, bitch."

"So I guess no warm and fuzzy feelings after yesterday then," was Harry's reply to my less than warm greeting. I pushed over Harry's nearest friend to me and took their seat while they rolled around on the floor for a few minutes before crawling back to their feet.

"Please explain to me why the entire school knows that I'm spending Christmas with your family," I snapped. "Everyone's going to think that we're best friends or something now. I can't have people associating me with you in a positive way!"

"I wasn't aware that it was a secret," Harry replied and took a bite of his fried egg. He turned his gaze back to me and raised an eyebrow as if daring me to have a problem with the situation. The man was as cool as a cucumber, he seemed totally okay with the fact that his reputation as number one Saorise hater was probably being ruined at this very moment.

"I wasn't aware that everyone else needed to be caught up on my private life," I retorted.

"Why do you have such a big problem with people knowing that you actually enjoy my company despite the fact that you seem to frequently want to cause me serious bodily harm?"

"Don't kid yourself Styles," I spat viciously. "The idea of spending time with you or my family is about as appealing as mud. The only reason you rank even a little bit higher than them is because you at least amuse me. I can't exactly fire off insults at my mother without some sort of repercussion."

I pushed back the chair with a loud scrape and got up to make my dramatic exit but Harry's next few words made me stop dead.

"One thing that's always bothered me is why you put on this bitchy act all the time when yesterday clearly showed that you're starved of affection," Harry said quietly. I slowly turned around to look him in the eye. This wasn't the attitude of the cheerful boy who liked to push my buttons from the beginning of the conversation. This was someone who was a little too observant for their own good and had seen what most others overlooked. The way Harry said it made it sound like he knew he was right in what he said.

But he was wrong; I was not starved of affection. I didn't need anyone to love me and I didn't want it. Affection was stupid, affection made you weak. I quite liked being heartless.

"I enjoy being Head Ice Bitch, thank you very much," I replied with an arrogant smile. I walked over to Harry and leaned down so that I could talk into his ear. "And I am not starved of affection," I hissed.

I gave him the same cocky smile as before, ran my hand through his hair in what looked like an affectionate gesture but which was really just a sharp pull of a fistful of Harry's hair. I felt him wince under my hand and my smile got even bigger. I have him two more sharp slaps to the cheeks before strutting away.

"Don't act like you know anything about me Harry Styles."

My classes were relatively uninteresting, except for the ones where I was forced to sit near Harry. He took it as an opportunity to scrounge up little balls of paper and chuck them at me. He claimed it was an experiment to see how long he could keep it up before I completely snapped and tried to rip his face off but I thought he was just being an asshole.

 

It was a minor disagreement . . . if minor meant trying to beat him unconscious with my book bag and getting thrown out of class for it, then yeah, minor.

It was like being in elementary all over again whenever I was around him.

I thought that I might've finally gotten away from him when I spent my lunch and last two periods in the library catching up on homework and studying. I'd picked a table hidden behind one of the large stacks of bookshelves that were standing around the room next to each other. I was fairly productive but at some point I just started dozing off.

As the sun shone brighter, my eyelids became heavier and heavier to keep open. The warmth that was shining in from the large window next to me was so comfortable and made me feel like curling up with a warm blanket. I had just closed my eyes to take a five minute nap with a smile on my face when the chair next to me was pulled back and a loud thud sent me shooting up in shock.

Papers, books, pencils, calculators and anything else went flying off the desk and onto the floor. The silence in the library was disrupted by my big and heavy textbooks crashing to the ground, not to mention the fact that I had to dive across the table in order to keep the small green lamp that was sitting on the surface from crashing and breaking on the ground. I nearly tripped over the table in the process.

The stern librarian with the mousy brown hair, pencil skirt and white blouse poked her head around the corner and glared at me and the mess that I had accidentally caused. I put down the lamp and straightened out my school shirt as much as I could. There was really no point in doing so though, I could see that her opinion of me had been ruined and no amount of clothe straightening would fix that.

"I, uh, I was a little startled," I said lamely, as I ran my hands through my hair in order to try and get out any tangles and keep it flat. The librarian didn't say anything, she simply narrowed her eyes at me and then left, the soft padding of her feet growing softer and softer the farther away that she got.

"You'd think I stuck a snake down your back or something by the way that you reacted," Harry said and coughed. The tension in his muscles was ridiculous; it was like he was using up every last drop of his self control to keep from bursting into raucous laughter and getting himself kicked out.

"What the hell are you even doing here?" I hissed at him. I moved around Harry and began to gather up my papers as quickly as I possibly could. I waddled around as fast as I could in a crouched position, reaching for anything that belonged to me and sacrificing my dignity while I was at it.

"I figured you'd be in here and I thought I'd come and keep you company," Harry said with a shrug. He pushed his bag over to his left side and then swung his feet up on the table. Harry pushed himself on the back of the two legs of his chair and gave me a confident grin. I really wished that he would fall backwards and hurt himself.

"I came here to get away from you actually, I figured the library was probably the last place that you would be in," I said and slammed down all of my belongings onto the table in a messy pile. I grabbed the bottom of my white blouse and pulled on it to straighten it out once again. I cleared my throat, turned my nose up at Harry and took my seat next to him with as much dignity as possible.

I tugged my skirt as close as I could to my knees before I sat down. I tucked it around me and crossed my legs at the ankles. Harry watched my vain attempts to cover myself with a smile on his face.

"What?" I snapped at him harshly.

"You keep trying to cover yourself up around me, which I don't understand because I don't care how much skin you're showing, and besides, I've seen you wearing much much less," Harry said with a raise of his eyebrow.

"That was an accident and you promised me that you'd never bring it up again," I said sharply.

"Well now, I thought about becoming a politician, and you know how politicians are, they all tell lies," Harry raid suggestively. My eyes widened in horror. He wouldn't dare tell anyone about the incident! People were going to cling onto it like a drowning man clinging to a life raft and no matter what I did there would always be that incident tacked onto the end to completely demean me.

"If you are threatening me with black mail then that makes you the biggest scum of the earth," I replied as calmly as I could, my hands curling into fists. I began to take deep breaths to keep myself under control. Someday I was going to going to pummel Harry Styles to within an inch of his life.

"Do you really think that lowly of me?"

"Yes, I do."

"And I thought that after yesterday we'd become bosom friends," Harry said, clasping his hands to his chest in mock hurt. I rolled my eyes at him.

"I highly doubt being forced to spend time with your pleasant family as grounds for us becoming mates," I said with a snort and picked up the pencil sitting next to my right hand. "I've been meaning to ask you, are you sure you're not adopted?"

 

I blinked innocently and gave Harry a sweet smile. It was silent for a second, the only sound coming from the tapping of my pencil.

"That's hilarious, but no, I'm not adopted."

"Really? Because your family is so nice, and you're so not."

"Well at least people will never think that you're adopted, you're just like the rest of your lot."

"Is this how you win all of the girls' hearts, by taking shots at them?" I asked through gritted teeth and a tight-lipped smile. We'll just ignore the fact that I was the one who took the first shot.

"You started it," Harry pointed out calmly. It was driving me insane how calm this boy could be sometimes. How on earth did he manage to have such control over his emotions? It almost felt like whenever he did get angry, he was just giving me the satisfaction of seeing him angry, not as if he were actually upset.

There have been times when all I've wanted to do was rip my hair out and scream in frustration but I couldn't because it would label me as crazy no matter what my reputation was.

"What do you want?" I asked with a sigh. I didn't want to fight anymore. I would have been perfectly happy to just sit and stare out of the window until I fell asleep. I didn't want to bicker or do work or be around other people. I just wanted to relax instead of keeping my guard up at all times.

"Nothing, I was just going to keep you company," Harry said with a shrug. He brought his legs off of the table and began to rummage through his school bag. I started in shock when Harry actually pulled out his Biology textbook and flipped it open.

"You're studying?" I asked the surprise evident in my voice.

"Shocking as it may be, I do study. It's not always easy being better than everyone else in class," Harry said and reached into his bag to pull out a notebook and a pen. "Well, any class that you're not in. It's impossible to beat you in a subject," he amended.

There was no response that I could come up with that would be satisfactory for the compliment that he had just given me. It wasn't often that Harry Styles gave a genuine compliment. Oh sure, he'd smirk at me and give me some half-assed flattery but there were very few times when it was just him being kind. He didn't even notice that he had said something nice about me; he just read his textbook and wrote his notes.

Maybe Harry gave a lot more compliments than I thought because I seemed to be the only one that was making a big deal out of the entire thing.

I opened my mouth to say something, what it was, I know not, but I knew that I had to say something. Nothing came out. I closed my mouth. I repeated the process a few more times before finally frowning at my inarticulateness and turned back to my work. I didn't get much done however because half my mind was on Harry Styles and half my mind was focused on my homework.

Eventually though, my mind emptied of both things and I was once again staring out the window. The sun wasn't shining as brightly as it was before and it wasn't as warm. The library had fewer people in it and even more were packing up and leaving. My eyes began to flutter and with a yawn, my face slipped off of my palm and landed on the desk. I took a deep breath and sighed and then drifted off to sleep.

I don't know how long I slept for, but I did know that one second I was having a nightmare about failing all of my subjects and the next I had been brought back to reality in that abrupt way that you sometimes are. I looked around me through bleary eyes and yawned like a little girl. I brought a fist up to my eye and rubbed it until it started to hurt.

I looked around me and was surprised to find that the library was empty save for Harry and me. The sun had gone down and the moon was shining brightly in the sky and bathing my crumpled papers in white light. The bookshelves cast shadows across the floor and gave me a creepy feeling. My first instinct was to leave my stuff and just get the hell out of the room.

My eyes finally landed on Harry who was still writing away at his notes with a determined expression on his face. He had turned on the little green lamp to provide light since it was so dark. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbow and his hair was a lot messier than when he had arrived, no doubt he had run his hands through it in frustration over something. He was only wearing a vest over his white button up shirt.

I frowned in confusion; I could've sworn that he had been wearing a jacket when he had gotten here earlier in the day. It hadn't just disappeared. It was then that I noticed that said mysterious jacket was actually sitting on my shoulders.

Harry glanced at me and then did a double take.

"Good evening there sleeping beauty," he said with a grin. He dropped his pen and rotated his wrist. He leaned back in his chair, stretched his arms and cracked his back with a groan. "That felt good."

"Did you give me your jacket?" I asked stupidly. Clearly my intelligence was temporarily impaired. Why was I even asking, of course he'd given it to me, who else was going to? It's not like the jacket just grew arms and threw itself on me.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"You looked like you were a little cold so I took it off and covered you with it," Harry replied with a shrug. He snapped his textbook shut and shoved it in his bag along with his notebook and his pen. He began to put away my things into my bag as well. It was probably just as well, I didn't seem to be in the right state of mind to clean up after myself.

"That was really nice of you, thank you," I was very bad at hiding my own surprise.

"Don't expect me to do it again anytime soon, I think I saw you get some drool on it. I wasn't all that thrilled to watch my clothing get defiled," Harry said. He reached out a hand for his coat. I took it off and handed it to him with a scowl.

And of course he goes ahead and ruins the pleasant exchange that we were having. I'm surprised we were even civil for this long.

"Next time I'll pack a blanket," I said and took my bag from his outstretched hand. I slung it over my shoulder and made my way around the bookshelves and headed towards the door. Harry hurried to catch up with me.

I speed walked as quickly as I could away from him, thinking that he would be following me but instead found him crouching over the keyhole to the door of the library. Once Harry had made sure that he had locked the door to the library, he stuck the key into the dirt in one of the large potted plants on either side of the door. I waited for him to catch up to me before resuming my pace.

"Librarian said to lock up once we were finished and leave the key in one of the plants," Harry explained even though I hadn't asked. Since when were he and the librarian even friends? Since when was anyone friends with her? I felt like she just kind of hung around ready to eat out anyone that sniffed her books wrong or something like that.

"Since when are you best friends with the librarian?"

"I'm not but she trusts me enough to lock up her library for her. I've spoken to her sometimes whenever I'm in there; she's not as boring as you'd think."

"Well at least someone trusts you."

"That's funny; you look like shit by the way."

"Charming."


	7. Phlegm Style

The weather was shit. I don't know what the hell happened but all I know is that one week everything was relatively warm and the next it was like we were living in Canada in the middle of winter. The weather went from warm to getting frostbite cold and then it would go back and back and forth. I didn't know whether to pull out my jumpers or not so my closet was a fucking mess the entire time.

I generally liked to keep things organized and proper so every time the seasons changed I'd switch out my clothes. My summer clothes were folded away into drawers and my heavy winter coats, my long johns that my mother tried to set fire to one time, my snow pants, snow boots, scarves, mittens and every other piece of winter clothing came out along with my few items for autumn.

I didn't know what the weather was but it sure as hell wasn't fucking autumn.

And as seems to be the norm whenever the weather is shit, everyone gets sick but you don't notice it until everyone in your dorm sounds like a room full of dying elderly people. Not only was I constantly torn between putting on more jumpers and ripping them off, but I was sick.

Some asshole had coughed into their hand and touched a doorknob, and me, being the unsuspecting victim, had touched the contaminated doorknob and had touched my face at some point and now I had joined the sick people. I looked like a fucking corpse and my eyes had bags under their eyes. My nose stung from the amount of times that I wiped it per second and probably raw and peeling. My sinuses were blocked up more than downtown Toronto during rush hour and I had gotten absolutely no sleep for about a week.

Every time that I lay down in my bed, my nose started dripping and I was stumbling around like a maniac trying to find a damn tissue in the room. My hair had become another entity entirely but I was too tired to actually give a damn about how it looked so it was greasy and dark, tangled and shoved into a bun at all times. How was I going to take a shower when I was too busy trying not to cough up my alveoli.

It's safe to say that just about everyone, including Nicole, was disgusted with me and kept as far away from me as possible. Every time I went down to the kitchens to knick some food, the Chefs would always shove me back outside and shove a surgeon's mask in my face. I was only allowed to touch the things that they handed me and then get out. Nicole had set up boundaries in our room that I was not allowed to cross or heaven help me. Every time she came near me she would hold out a bottle of Dettol in front of her and cover her mouth and nose with her t-shirt. I thought it was overkill but whatever made her feel better.

She'd even gone and picked out the biggest stick she could find from the school grounds and used it to poke me awake in the mornings. As it was, that was exactly what Nicole was doing at the current moment.

"Psst, Saorise, wake up," Nicole hissed at me, and continued to shove the sharp stick into my left arm repeatedly. I groaned in response and turned onto my right side and let out an even louder groan. This was bullshit.

"Go die in a hole Nicole," I said in a hoarse voice, pretty sure that I was going to end up with laryngitis as well because why not. Might as well get it all over with at once and then rest in peace for about a year before it all came back.

"I can't, I have assignments I need to hand in and tests to take," she said and kept poking me. If I had the strength and the energy I would've taken that stick and started beating her with it until she left the room and then I would've locked her out. But unfortunately, with my sickness, my appetite also disappeared and because I wasn't hungry, I didn't eat food and I'd lost a couple of pounds. I could understand why people gave me a wide berth when they passed me in the hallways.

"You need to get to class Saorise," Nicole said, and actually started stabbing me with the stick. Why was she speeding up my death? Just leave me to lie here in my own filth and phlegm and go to class.

"Nicole, in case you haven't noticed, I'm sick," I said as sarcastically as I possibly could in my raspy voice.

"Then go see the nurse so she can give you some antibiotics," Nicole snapped at me. As annoyed as she was getting with me, she hadn't made any move to come closer to me and force me out of bed, unless you counted that stupid stick of hers as force.

"I don't think she has any."

"Then she's going to order some."

"Fuck. Off."

"Alright but I'm not getting any of your homework for you if miss all of your classes," Nicole said, and finally stopped with the stick. Thank The Lord Jesus Christ; I thought she was going to poke right through me or something.

I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep but Nicole's constant bitching kept me awake, and my runny nose wasn't helping me out either. After another fifteen minutes of loud swearing and banging around, Nicole finally left the dorm and slammed the door shut behind her to make a point.

I was half unconscious so the amount of fucks that I gave was none at all. I pushed myself up into a sitting position, my muscles stiff and sore the entire time. I felt like crying because no matter how little I moved, my muscles practically screamed in agony. I was aching everywhere and no amount of medicine seemed to be changing anything at all.

"Ugh," I said as I shuffled my feet and slowly made my way across the room and to my bureau to reach the tissue box that was sitting on top of it. I grabbed it and made my slow journey back to my bed, wincing every time I moved and squinting because the light was hurting my eyes. What the hell had I done to piss off Satan? Why was he doing this to me?

I flopped down on the bed and sighed in relief when the cool cover came into contact with my body. I pulled my duvet over me, shoved some tissues up my nose and went to sleep with my mouth wide open.

I wasn't really asleep, that much I know because I was perfectly aware of everything that was going on around me. I was half-conscious the entire time, it was the closest thing that I ever got to these days, it was just impossible for me to sleep. And honestly, I wasn't that surprised, my every movement caused me pain and I had a habit of fidgeting for half an hour or more whenever I went to sleep. My nights were spent in discomfort.

I woke up at what I assumed to be around lunch by a loud pounding on my door that had now transferred to the loud pounding that was going on in my head. When I found out who the hell was giving me a headache, I was going to pulverize them once I got better. First Nicole in the morning and now this?! Why wouldn't people just let me be sick in peace?!

"Coming!" I tried to say as loudly as I could in a nasally voice. I reached for my tissue box, shoved my feet into some slippers, and trudged to the door. I pulled it open and hacked up my lungs into the crook of my elbow. With a groan and bleary eyes, I looked up at the person standing in front of me.

"Heard you were sick," a familiar voice said. I immediately slammed the door shut in his face, locked it, and then began making my way back to my bed. Waste of my fucking time is what he was, it's not like I was really doing much except feeling sorry for myself but still, I could've spent those two minutes resting myself.

The door unlocked behind me and pushed open with a creak. I didn't even have to force myself to groan, it just came out of me when I hung my head. This was getting ridiculous, who the fuck came up with the idea of bacteria and the flu? How was this helpful to anybody?

"How did you get a key to my room?" I demanded as aggressively as I could. I didn't come across as very ferocious however considering I actually moaned when I sat down on my bed, my voice was weaker than a small child's and that I barely looked like I couldn't wipe my own nose let alone take on a teenage boy. Still, I should at least make an attempt to look tough in the face of someone who could be a stalker for all I know.

"Nicole gave it to me," Harry said, amusement clear in his voice despite the fact that he was fighting quite hard to keep a smile from spreading all over his face. Of course Satan takes pleasure in my pain, I expect he did some kind of ritual and asked Lucifer to put me in my own personal living hell. Harry is so great at trying to make me fall in love with him, after all, what boy doesn't laugh at a girl that they're trying to woo when she's sick.

I scowled at him but this didn't seem to make him any more solemn than my weak aggressiveness. If anything, it seemed to amuse Harry even more. If he didn't stop laughing at me, I was going to put my body through pain and start chucking stuff at his head until he left.

He stood in my doorway with his hands shoved in the pockets of his trousers, his button up shirt untucked and his tie hanging around his neck loosely. He had sex hair as always and a relaxed smile on his face, the picture of healthy teenager. I seriously hope he got sick, which if he touched anything in this room was exactly what was probably going to happen to be perfectly honest.

"That girl is asking to be thrown in a ditch," I muttered. "Why are you even here?" I asked Harry. I  lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

"Came to see if you were okay."

"Fine. Peachy. Get out."

I glanced at Harry and caught him rolling his eyes at my, admittedly, childish behaviour. Sometimes I wasn't even being a bitch; I was just acting like a spoilt child. The great part about it though was that I was rich and it would be easy to assume that I was spoiled, which I wouldn't deny that I am.

"Do you want soup or anything Saorise?" Harry said in that same stupid voice of his. The amusement hadn't left but anyone with half a brain could tell that he was quickly losing patience with me and my bullshit. If I kept up my behaviour I might just get Harry to leave my room.

His day must be really shitty.

"I want you to get the fuck out of my room and leave me to wallow in my own sickness, please and thank you," I snapped. Harry gave a loud sigh and then his slow footsteps made their way over to my door. He had almost left when I finally swallowed some of my pride and stopped him.

"Wait," I said. Harry froze in the threshold but didn't turn to look at me. I couldn't blame him for being cautious I guess I wouldn't trust myself to not blurt out some obscure request that no sane person would fulfill. "Can you get me a wet cloth to put on my forehead?"

I sounded a lot needier than I wanted to. I was needy, I could barely take care of myself in this state but I didn't exactly want to broadcast that to the world, you know. Harry didn't need to get any idea of how incapable I was of functioning properly and a request like that certainly made me sound weak. I would bet money on the fact that I most likely wouldn't hear the end of this for months to come.

I expected Harry to say no because I was acting extremely ungrateful and to hurl some insults at me that would've been undoubtedly true and then slam the door behind him once he'd left. Instead, he made his way to the loo and opened the tap. I waited for him to come to me with the wet cloth.

It was completely silent in the room, it seemed as if Harry and I were finished conversing with each other and were going to use body language instead. Harry stood on my right side and looked down at me impassively. I stared up at him as he smoothed back my gross hair with no reaction and gently pressed the cloth to my forehead.

I let out a sigh as the cool cloth absorbed some of the heat from my forehead and a cold feeling spread through me. Harry's hand remained on my forehead a moment longer before disappearing. I thought he would've walked out without waiting, or expecting, a thank you from me but instead he did something that I would have never expected him to do. He gently lifted my legs with one hand and pulled back the bed covers with the other. He set my legs down on the bed and pulled the duvet back over my body.

He moved back to my head, and pretending as if I wasn't there, straightened out the pillow and me with it, the cloth never leaving my forehead. He tucked me in and once he was finished with that, Harry turned the cloth over on my forehead and another cold wave went through me. He didn't look me in the eye or say a word about what he had just done, he simply turned around, left the room, closed the door behind him, and then locked it.

I actually managed to fall asleep that time around.

As far as I was concerned, Harry wasn't going to visit me ever again and Nicole was probably going to poke me to death with her stick when she found out from the rest of the school that Harry had tucked me into bed. I was wrong on both accounts, Harry did come and see me again and Nicole most certainly did not beat me with her stick.

No one in the school knew that Harry Styles had taken care of me because Harry hadn't breathed a word of it to anyone. You'd think he'd go ahead and tell everyone exactly how awesome he'd been and bathed in the admiration that everyone would've no doubt washed him with. It was what he did; it seemed like the man didn't know what modesty even was because I always found him bragging about one thing or another.

When I finally managed to crack open my eyes, the sun wasn't lighting up the room like before noon, my nose was dry, as were my lips and I was in desperate need of water. I was about to get out of bed and drink from the tap in the washroom when Harry walked out of the loo without his blazer on and the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows.

Even in my sick health I could recognize that Harry's attractiveness had increased by five thousand percent. Honestly, if I wasn't focused on not dying because of dehydration, not sick, and had no self control, I would've jumped him right there and then.

I hadn't even heard him come back into the room; I had been that out of it. A squeak escaped from me and attracted Harry's attention. His expression hadn't changed since the last time that he had been in here.

"What do you need?"

"I was going to get some water," I said and tried to get out of bed. He was at my side in a flash and pushing me back into my pillows.

"Sit while I get you water," it wasn't a request, I was being told to not move by someone that I absolutely despised. I would've completely ignored Harry if it weren't for the sad fact that the one person that I couldn't get along with was taking care of me when no one else was.

Not even Nicole -who I counted as my friend for the majority of the time even though I didn't treat her right- wanted to even get me a box of tissues because she didn't want to get sick. I guess this was what I got for mistreating people, when I needed someone to look after me, no one wanted to because, why should they? I never said a kind thing about anyone ever, I never helped anyone or smiled at them or did anything really to make them like me. Harry was a part of the group of people that I insulted, screamed at and looked down on, so why was he here?

Harry left and was back beside me in thirty seconds at the most and helping me sit up. I gulped down the water greedily and tried to thank him but the words got stuck in my mouth. Harry put the glass down and started handing me pill after pill of medication to swallow. Some of it was for my coughing, some of it was for my sinuses, some of it was for my fever, and some of it was for the aching all over my body.

He threw back the covers of my bed and helped me stand up. I couldn't stop staring at Harry the entire time that he guided me to my destination. He avoided my gaze and instead stared down at the ground. It was only when I saw the pile of clean clothes sitting on the counter next to the toilet that I realized that Harry had actually prepared a bath for me.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"I'm helping you get into your shower," Harry stated in a monotone voice.

"But why?"

"Because you look like the walking dead Saorise, that's why, you're not taking care of yourself, and as nice of a person as Nicole is, she isn't taking care of you in the slightest because quite frankly, and I'm sorry to say this, she doesn't give a shit. Someone has to force you to swallow your medicine and take a fucking shower and as far as I can see, I'm the only one that cares whether you live or die," Harry replied sharply. The facade of disinterest was finally cracking and some of the anger was leaking through.

Well at least the bastard was showing some emotion instead of acting like wallpaper.

Before I could say anything else, he grabbed the hem of my shirt and began to pull it up and over my head. My arms just immediately went up to allow him to slide the shirt off. He tossed the shirt to the floor and then put an arm around me to help me stay on my feet while he pulled off my trousers off and discarded those as well.

I opened my mouth to say a joke about whether he wanted to take off my bra and pants as well but Harry didn't seem to be in the mood to put up with me.

"You can do the rest by yourself and then you can get into the tub and scrub yourself clean or do whatever you need to," Harry said, and left me alone without waiting for a response. The door closed behind me and I was left with a tub full of hot water and clean clothes on the counter.

I stepped into the bathtub slowly, the last thing that I really needed was to slip and knock myself unconscious. The water was at first absolutely scorching to the touch but the longer that I sat in it, the more used to it I got.

Slowly, very slowly, I began to scrub my body free of any dirt or germs or dead skin that had settled on it. I felt like I'd scrubbed off an entire layer of skin when I was finished. I felt lighter and a lot healthier than before, which I guess just goes to show how magical baths really are. I could actually breathe through my nose for the first time in forever.

It took me a while to wash my hair because my arms got tired really quick nowadays, so I had to frequently stop rubbing my scalp and put them down. It took me ten minutes longer than usual to get my hair scrubbed and then I just lay in the tub. The water felt so good and I felt so calm and relaxed. I really didn't want to leave the water and go back to my stupid bed. After another ten minutes of just floating on water, I decided that it was about time that I got out of the tub and dressed.

I pulled on the clean pants that had been placed out for me, and attempted to put on my bra with little success. I sighed and fidgeted from foot to foot? Was it really worth it to open the door and ask for Harry's help or should I just struggle with the clasps for another few minutes or so? I might as well just ask him for help, it's not like I could be any more indebted to the boy than I already was.

I pulled the door open just a crack and stuck my head out onto the other side.

"Ahem, Harry, could you help me with my bra clasp please?" I asked in a quiet voice. If he didn't hear me then I would just go back and struggle on my own, no need to draw attention to me when I didn't need to. As it was, he did hear me and came over. I grabbed a towel at the last minute to hold up to my front while Harry tried to fix my back.

"Which one?"

"The last one," I said and waited for the material to tighten around me.

"Do you need help with anything else?"

"I can manage," Harry left again and I shut the door behind him. I put the towel down and wiggled around in my bra until I finally got it to cover my boobs and then I pulled on my clean pajamas.

The towel that I held in front of me I used to wrap up my hair so that it would soak the water and stepped out of the washroom. My dorm room didn't even look like my dorm room anymore. The tissues that had littered the floor were all in the garbage and any books of mine that had been strewn all over the floor had been stacked into neat piles in corners of the room.

The blinds and window had been opened allowing more sunlight in and a nice warm breeze to pass through. I think Harry had even gone to the extent of changing my bed sheets by the looks of it. How long had I been in that bath?

The place didn't look like the home of an extremely sick person.

"Sit down, we're drying your hair," Harry said, and pointed to the chair in front of him with his free hand, the other holding a hair dryer.

I was about to object but the look that Harry was giving me told me to just up and get my fucking hair dried or so help me God. I silently took the seat and let Harry dry my hair. If I end up looking like a fucking poodle by the time he's done, I'm doing to take that hair drier, put it on the hottest heat setting, and then bake his balls.

How did he even have so much time to spend taking care of me? Shouldn't Harry have been in class and doing complicated math or something? What was going on here? Pretty sure that taking care of a girl you want to decapitate and dismember on the daily is not a good enough excuse.

"How are you even excused from class?" I asked Harry, as the warm heat blew over my shoulders and sent shivers through me.

"I told the teachers that I fell down the stairs and they told me to go and get myself fixed up," he said with a shrug. I tipped my head up and stared at his clean baby face. There was no blood, not even a sign of a bruise on his face. How had he gotten away with that story?

 

"You don't look like someone who fell down a set of stairs," I pointed out.

"Oh, yeah, I wiped all of the make-up off before I came to see you," Harry replied with a shrug. "I figured if you woke up to my bruised and bloodied face you'd probably flip shit."

"Make-up?"

"Yeah, theatre make-up."

"You know how to use theatre make-up?" I asked incredulously. Since when did Harry know how to use theatre make-up? Why didn't I know this? We'd been at the same school for almost eleven years. I'd spent the majority of that time taking as many low blows to his ego as I could.

"I just told you that I did," he responded a little drily.

"And you're good at it?"

"Well I better fucking be I've been doing it since I was ten and I managed to convince my teachers that I fell down some fucking stairs."

We didn't say much after that. I sat in the chair for almost an hour waiting for my hair to dry. I don't know how Harry hadn't lost it and just said screw it. I didn't even bother with my hair most days because it took three hours for it to dry by itself and two using a hair dryer. I guess it wasn't all that much of a surprise that Harry was very patient, he'd put up with me all these years.

I settled back into bed after that.

"How many people know about your make-up ability?" I asked Harry before he could leave.

"The drama students and that's about it, everyone else has a tendency to ignore the theatre part and just focus on the make-up. As long as the drama students keep their mouths shut, I do any make-up they need for whatever jacked up play that they decide to perform."

I nodded in understanding and then stopped as it finally hit me. Did he mean to tell me that when the school did that play with those people time-traveling to see their older selves, and the one with the goblins, Harry had done all of that? I'd always assumed that they had gotten someone professional to do everything; it never even occurred to me that a student was capable of doing something so awesome.

"So when the school did the play with the time traveling ..."

"Yep, all me," said Harry, and for the first time that day, he actually grinned. He wiped the look off of his face though and instead went back to his disinterested one.

"That is so cool!" I exclaimed as enthusiastically as I could. I'd kind of always thought that Harry did drugs like a lot of other guys but apparently he spent his money on theatre make-up instead of weed.

Harry seemed absolutely stunned for a few moments. I wasn't one to normally give out compliments, usually because I was extremely vicious towards people and I generally found everyone unappealing, but this was actually something to get excited about. I'd always admired people who had a way with any type of make-up really. I could barely put on eyeliner without stabbing myself in my eyeball.

I moved over on the bed and made a small space for Harry to sit on. I patted it and gave him my most charming smile ever. I probably looked like I was about to skin him alive and then bury his body; I had difficulty sucking up to people. Harry eyed my hand warily and didn't move from his spot.

I stopped with the psychopathic look and got down to business instead. "Halloween is in October and it would be mighty good of you to help me out with my costume."

"What were you thinking?"

"Something to scare the shit out of the ten-year-olds."

"On one condition," Harry replied after thinking the idea through for a moment. I guess he'd finally come to the conclusion that this wouldn't harm him in any way much.

"Which is?" If he was going to ask me to do his homework for the rest of the term, then he had another thing coming. I was the one who made people my bitch, not the other way around. I wanted the make-up but I wouldn't give up my dignity for it.

"You go on a date with me," Harry said and smiled when he saw the look of utter dismay on my face. My eyebrows had risen so high I was convinced they would disappear into my hair any second. What kind of a request was that? Who exchanged theatre make-up for a date with a girl that they didn't even like?

"The whole shebang, we hold hands, I put my arm around you, we go for dinner, I make fun of you, the usual date," Harry said.

"No hand-holding, no arm around me, no hugging, no kissing, no intimate touching and we have a deal." I guess spending an hour or two with him wouldn't be such a bad thing, I'd made a pretty good trade when you thought about it. He could've asked me to buy him make-up supplies for the next five years.

"At least give me the arm thing Saorise, it's not like anything can come from that," Harry said with a roll of his eyes.

"Fine, we eat, we touch arms, we come back and that's it. Why the sudden interest in taking me out on a date?" I asked him with a cross of my arms.

"Well, I need to move this bet along somehow don't I?"


End file.
